Fate or Misfortune

Last Saturday, I along with a few of my friends went for the movie, "The curious case of Benjamin Button", it was truly an awesome movie, everything about that movie was perfect, especially, there was this once scene which I truly believed was shot in a very striking manner, the scene which shows the various acts which preceded and were responsible for Cate Blanchett’s accident, and how it could have been avoided had it not been for any of these acts, that scene kind of made me sit back and introspect the role that a delay of a minute or two can make to one’s life, the kind of significance that the term “If only” has in everybody’s life.

Call it fate, or misfortune, but I experienced the same kind of feeling the very next day, when I rammed into an auto rickshaw and had a completely damaged car which literally had to be towed away to the nearest service station, and I just cant stop wondering “If only”.

We were returning back home after having enjoyed a game of bowling, we were supposed to go for our band practice, but due to some reason both of us decided we rather return back home, on our way back home, we stopped at the mall to make some general purchases, as we were coming out of the mall, I noticed two or three people with ice-creams in their hands, out of nowhere, I got this urge to have an ice-cream, it was a hot Sunday afternoon, and my friend also kind of liked the idea, he then suggested that we go to “Corner house” an ice-cream parlor which is a few blocks away from the mall, this was not at all in the scheme of our plans, and I was kind of apprehensive about going there, as the traffic in that area was terrible, and to find a parking space there would be as difficult as trying to find the door to Heaven, but still, the urge to have an ice-cream was so bad that I consented, and we were on our way to Corner House, going there, finding our way through traffic, finding a suitable place for parking, enjoying our ice-cream and starting back from there all took a decent 45 minutes. Once we were done with it, we started our journey back home, on our way back home, my friend suggested we invite another mutual friend to our place to spend the afternoon, I was looking forward for a nice afternoon nap, so again I was kind of apprehensive about it, and I asked him if that friend could visit us sometime in the evening, but this time again he was able to convince me, and so we agreed to wait for him somewhere on the way, we waited for him for ten to fifteen minutes, and finally started our journey back home, fully confident that finally we will be back home by at least 03:30 in the afternoon, and I will be able to have my nap, which I was looking forward to.

Just five minutes away from our house, I turned into the service road, God knows why I did that, as usually I prefer to be on the highway, till the final turning to our house, anyways, I took this service road, the speedometer was showing a decent 50kmph, just then I notice this auto rickshaw coming out of nowhere trying to cross the service road and get onto the highway, I honk my horn and apply brakes, but my vehicle is completely out of control as it starts skidding, now why did that happen!!! Oh yes, that service road was laid just a few days back and there was still some mud on that road, it was damn new, and probably that was what prompted me to take that in the first place, anyways, my vehicle was not in my control, I applied the brakes but it just didn’t respond, I saw that auto rickshaw right in front of my eyes, maybe he also saw me and if he would have wanted we could have averted the collision, but he was in no mood to back off, and I was not in control even if I wanted to, I turned the steering wheel in the last minute but it was too late by then, the right wing of my car rammed into the rear part of his vehicle, my car stopped a little distance away, right portion of my car was in shatters, fortunately me, both my friends and the driver of that vehicle were safe, nothing happened to any of us, not even a single scratch on our body. What followed was a few hours of trying to throw blame on each other by then a good number of onlookers had gathered, who had nothing better to do on a Sunday evening, but to stand in the middle of the road and enjoy two people who were literally in shock but still trying to find some rational part of the brain functional to be able to discuss and negotiate and find an amicable solution for the situation that was in hand, finally a settlement was reached, wherein I had to bear the expenses for the repair for his vehicle, what with the owner of the vehicle being a local goon, and he having a lot of loyal people ready to lay their hands on anything and everything they could get especially me and my friends, we were completely cornered, and had no other choice, but to accept their demands, But the point here is
The thoughts that bothered me that night, and it was, If only I would have gone for the practice, or if only we had not gone for either the purchases at the mall or the ice-cream, or may be if only we wouldn’t have waited for that friend of ours, or maybe if only we wouldn’t have taken the service road at all then maybe this thing would surely have been averted, call it fate or call it misfortune, the vehicles owner being a local goon, and the incident happening just 5 minutes away from where we live is surely the curious case of my fate.